Ralph Martin named chairman of Greater Boston chamber
By Sacha Pfeiffer
Globe Staff
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce has named a new chairman, Ralph C. Martin 2nd, the former Suffolk district attorney who is now managing partner of Bingham Consulting Group, an arm of the law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP.
Martin, who will assume the volunteer two-year post in May, succeeds Dr. James J. Mongan, president and chief executive of Partners HealthCare System Inc.
As chairman, Martin will collaborate with the chamber's president and chief executive, Paul Guzzi, to drive economic growth in the region and serve the group's 1,700 members. Martin will be the first former elected official to hold the position, and the third lawyer, according to the chamber.
"This is an opportunity to help the chamber fulfill some of its longstanding, very strategic initiatives that also happen, coincidentally or not, to comport with some of the things I'm interested in," such as diversity issues and the accessibility and affordability of health care, said Martin, a member of the board of directors of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and former chairman of The Partnership, Inc., a Boston group that works to recruit and retain minority professionals in the Boston area.
"This is another really vital organization I hope to contribute to on those fronts and others," he added.
Before joining Bingham McCutchen, then Bingham Dana, in 2002, Martin was district attorney of Suffolk County for nearly a decade. In that position, he had the distinction of being the first African-American and Republican district attorney in county history.
At Bingham, where he chairs the firm's Diversity Task Force, Martin specializes in corporate governance and investigations, white collar defense, and general civil litigation. His role at Bingham Consulting involves helping business clients navigate governmental and regulatory agencies. The firm, which has expanded aggressively in the past nine years, now has about 950 lawyers and 11 offices worldwide.
Martin, who has sat on the chamber's executive board for the past four years, is a graduate of Brandeis University and Northeastern University School of Law.
